A MUM shamed her son on Facebook after he burnt himself by setting fire to an aerosol can.

Exasperated Sheila Brown snapped when Richard, 15, ignored her warnings and ended up scorching his face and hair.

She uploaded a photo of him in bandages on to Facebook and posted the message: “Burns Night came again this year. No, not some Scottish poetry reading, but my son being a total meatball head and getting himself burnt.

“He got off lightly but it could have been so much more than facial burns and some hair loss.

“So yes, it’s official, Richard Brown is still a total pillock, eejit, etc.”

Sheila said she was fed-up with Richard ignoring her warnings.

She added: “I’ve been telling him for weeks not to mess with aerosol cans but he likes lighting them like a flamethrower.

“I’ve caught him doing it out of his bedroom window.

“There are a lot of other reckless idiots out there, so they should see what’s happened.

“When I first saw the burns, I thought somebody had thrown acid in his face. I put the photo and the message up on Facebook to try and warn others.

“I wanted to embarrass Richard and let him know that I’m fed-up with the way he behaves. He hardly goes to school these days but went in to show off his bandages.

“He has total disregard for his own safety and everybody else’s.

“When he was 11, he was on a third-floor balcony and he tried to jump to the next balcony and fell about 30ft. He broke his leg that time.”

Sheila, of Grantown-on-Spey, Moray, continued: “If a child takes note of what a parent says, there isn’t any need to embarrass them on Facebook.

“But children take more notice of their friends than they do of their family, so if they read about Richard’s silly stunt on Facebook and tell him he’s an idiot, then he might start to think about it.”

Richard was with pals in woods near his school, Grantown Grammar, on Sunday when he was hurt.

He said: “We had matches and an aerosol can, spraying it like a small flamethrower.

“We made a fire and put a small can of deodorant on it and heated it up. I thought it was a bit dodgy so I went to kick it out of the fire and it exploded.

“There was a flash of light and a ringing in the ears. When I opened my eyes, I was lying on my back, covered in debris from the fire, with sand, gravel and dirt stuck to my face where the skin was burned.

“My friend Wyatt was patting the back of my head because my hair was still smouldering.

“When I came home, I hadn’t realised how bad the burns were but they started to blister so we called 999 and an ambulance took me to hospital.

“They applied cooling gels and bandages. I couldn’t sleep because of the pain.”

Well-spoken Richard, who wants to be a military police officer in the RAF, said he has learned his lesson.

He added: “When I was lying on the ground, I saw the box of matches with the warning on it, a little stick figure with his arm on fire, and I started laughing.